Network based information processing systems generally allow multiple client devices, such as information processing servers and/or personal computers, to share/access one or more printers over a data communications network. Shared printers are typically associated with a print server on which a print driver is installed and configured. When a client device first accesses a particular printer, the configured print driver on the associated print server is typically downloaded to that client device and used to configure the print device. Large enterprises may have several hundred print devices and associated print servers and a large number of client devices that will share/access those devices.
System administrators often pre-configure a print driver before installing it on a given print server. Such pre-configuration includes, for example, changing the device default settings to enable/disable features like stapling, duplex printing, color settings, and the like. Pre-configuration generally follows a process that includes generating a configuration file (or config file) that, for example, is identified by a filename with a “cfg” suffix. The config file contains, among other things, device configuration settings. During installation on the print server, the config file is read and the settings therein applied. The config file is generally distributed by device manufacturers.
Modern computer operating systems, such as those from The Microsoft Corporation, have a process wherein they certify device drivers by 3rd parties that are distributed to client devices. One such driver certification process is performed by Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). WHQL certification involves, in part, the application of a digital signature to the driver package including any default configuration files distributed with the driver. If an administrator wishes to use a custom configuration file that differs from the WHQL certified package, modification of the configuration file invalidates the package's digital signature and thus the WHQL certification. Distributing a driver which is no longer WHQL certified has adverse implications in many operating systems including preventing the driver from being installed. Additionally, non-point and print-based print servers, such as Novell NDPS or Novell iPrint (by Novell Inc.), do not have the ability to change print default settings after installation of the driver on the print server or on client devices. Such print servers require each printer object on the client devices to be deleted, the print drivers removed and reinstalled.
After distribution and installation of print drivers across an enterprise network, enterprise-wide print driver defaults sometimes need to be changed. Examples of an enterprise-wide change of print driver defaults include a corporate policy change that specifies that all color printers are to be set to default monochrome setting. The inability to change printing defaults in such non-point and print-based servers has prompted the creation of tools that “clean-up” environments on client devices. Deployment and operation of these tools is a painstaking process, especially in large enterprise environments.
Accordingly, what is needed in this art are increasingly sophisticated systems and methods for supporting the change of printing defaults in pre-defined print drivers across an enterprise network of print devices.